Special Birthday Card

The Spellbinders are out again for this card and I have made this for my daughters birthday next month.

This makes full use of the Venetian Accents and Motifs and this is such a girly set.

The card is royal blue and cream...  and the base layer has different sized glue pearls added to it.

The other layers have all been in an embossing folder to add texture and interest to the card.

There is a video ... Create Your Own  Pearls ... to show you how I did this effect and it is a lot cheaper than using flat backed pearls to get the look.

I have cut the border twice and added it to the bottom of the card it has been double layered with blue and cream organza ribbon.... with a pearl to cover the knot.

Labels 20 has been used for the centre piece and I have added the matching pearl  "Bling" from Want2Scrap

The cream feather has been added in behind the mask ... which has been cut in cream  and again in blue to act as the shadow. I have done the same thing with the sentiment.

The finished card is 8" x 9" and I have used my Enveloplus Board to create a larger sized box to put it in.

Hope she likes it when she gets it ...

Hugs xx

Father Christmas

This is my Santa and I have had him for a long time ... here's the story about how he came to live at  my house.

Once  upon a time .... on a  cold and frosty  Saturday  morning I went  Christmas shopping ... with my youngest daughter ... to a place not far away.  

The town and the shops were all dressed up and ready for the season of good cheer.... The Christmas music played in the background.


Sparkling lights and tinsel   everywhere and  people bustled around looking for that last minute bargain.....   ( am I setting the atmosphere for you) 

One shop appealed to us as we walked by and so in we went .... and stood in the corner was the most wonderful Father Christmas I had ever seen ..... it was Love at First Sight ....  and I  just had to have him.

He was  rosy cheeked, grey haired and very rotund and I swear he winked at me as I stared at his beautiful beard.  He was just asking to be taken home ... so what could I say ... I couldn't refuse Santa or he might not fulfill my  wish list..... (intermission)

So he was duly packed into his cardboard box and we left the shop. We made our way back to the car park only to find that the box and Santa would not fit into the boot (trunk) of my daughters car.

Have you ever seen the size of the boot in an MX5 ???? ...  it's not big enough to put your handbag let alone any thing else ... so how we thought we were going to get him home is beyond me.

Fortunately it was a convertible and so in the freezing cold we put the roof down and I had to sit with the large box on my lap sticking out of the top of the car as we drove about 20 miles back to my house.

We giggled and sang Christmas songs all the way home and we got some strange looks I can tell you.

Back to the story ....

Father Christmas came into my lounge,  and he stood proudly by the side of the fire, warming himself after his long and arduous  journey.

He had small parcels  firmly held in his hand  and  he looked so very much at home.

I tidied his beard and re assured him that I would always take great care of him and we have lived Happily Ever After  ...  and I still love him as much as the day he first came into my life.   

The End 

Goodness me I have missed my vocation .... I should have been a story teller ... don't you think ??

Hugs xx

Here's my Tree...

Father Christmas can come to my house whenever he wants to now ... coz I am all ready for him.

My tree,  which is 7ft tall,  is in it's usual corner of the dining area  with all the sparkly lights on it .

I have dressed it in gold this year and added bows and baubles and THREE sets of lights.

I will add the presents as they are wrapped around the bottom.

They will be opened on Christmas Day before we all sit down to Roast turkey with all the trimming.

Can you see the stripes in the wall ??? They look a strange colour in the lamplight but I assure you they are cream.  The top view is from the centre of the room into the dining area.

This is looking to the lounge area and everything is neat and tidy again and I am shattered.

So if you will excuse me now I am going to go and put my butt ... in the corner of that settee ... with a glass of well earned red wine and watch some TV for a while.

Hugs xx

Decorating Done ...... (Phew)

 What a busy weekend this has been but the decorating is now finished.

A while ago we removed all the wallpaper from our walls and made them super smooth to paint instead.

But I wanted to add some stripes to the walls in the lounge and this is how we did it.

The base colour is applied first and allowed to dry and then we had to use low tack masking tape and measure out the stripes.

You  can just see  how it looked once we had done that and they look like one thick and one thin stripe but when the tape is removed the stripes are all the same width.

The next step was to roll all the thicker stripes with Varnish and I used the Satin low odour one.

Before the Varnish is dry remove the tape and the stripes are then on the wall.

That way you won't pull off the newly painted base layer along with your tape.

And here you can see the result once the wall is completed and the stripes look really neat.

The painting that you can see in the photo is a very large canvas that cost very little.

I laid it on top of an upturned tub in the garage and copied it from a post card that I bought from Ikea.

And all I used was emulsion that I had used in the house.

The only other thing I bought was a little tester pot of red to colour the orchid that the first girl is carrying.

When I first did this canvas it looked wrong.... until I added in the shading on the clothes and then it all came together.... and I am very pleased with the result.

So my house is getting back to normal and tomorrow I will show you the end result with the tree in pride of place.

Hugs xx

We have a Winner ...

Thank you so much to everybody who took part in the draw to win the  Enveloplus Board   from 

  Crafters Companion

This is such a useful piece of equipment for all the boxes and envelopes that maybe needed for larger projects.

I wish I had more of them to offer but alas there is only one and the lucky winner is 

        ...... Wendy L .....

Congratulations Wendy and I think you will be delighted with your prize.

You should have had your email informing you of your win and telling you what to do next to claim it.

Everything was done fairly and the winner was chosen completely randomly by InLinkz.

This is the first time I have ever done something like this I have to thank InLinkz too and I will be using them again.... so please keep popping back to see the next giveaway.

Hugs xx